Mechanical piano-player.



PATENTBD FEB. 5, 1907.

J. ROWLEY. MECHANICAL PIANO PLAYER.

APPLIOATION FILED MAR. 26, 1906.

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JOSEPH ROWLEY, OF OSSETT, ENGLAND.

MECHANICAL PIANO-PLAYER.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Feb. 5, 1907.

Application filed March 26,1906. Serial No. 308,094.

To all whom, it may concern.-

Be it known that I, JOSEPH RowLEY, a subject of the King of Great Britain and Ireland, residing at Ossett, in the county of York, England, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Mechanical Pianoforte-Players, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to certain improvements in automatic apparatus for playing pianofortes and like musical instruments.

It has hitherto been usual for mechanical pianoforte-players to be limited to a compass of, say, sixty-five notes, and it will be seen, therefore, that when the apparatus is applied to a pianoforte of the ordinary eighty-five-note compass certain of the notes at top and bottom of the pianofortes compass will remain out of action.

The object of my present invention there fore is to bring these extreme notes (which would otherwise remain inoperative) under the action of the mechanical pianoforteplayer by means of suitable extensors or octave-ccuplers, as hereinafter described, thereby enabling the said mechanical pianoforteplayer to operate upon every note within the greater compass of the piano'forte.

My invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which- Figure 1 is a plan of such parts of an An gelus pianoforte-player as are necessary to illustrate the application of my invention, either to this or to any similar type of mechanical pianoforte-playcr; and Fig. 2 is a side view showing in detail the method of mounting the aforesaid extensors or octavecouplers.

Similar letters of reference are employed to indicate corresponding parts throughout the several views.

In applying my said invention I arrange the required number of extensors or octavecouplers A at each end of the player, each of the said extensors A being connected at B to the rear end of one of the ordinary fingerlevers O and passing obliquely therefrom to the corresponding octave. By this means both the note and its octave are struck simultaneously and the entire compass of the pianoforte is utilized. The said extensors or octave-couplers A are fnlcrumed upon pivots D on the upper side of extensions E of the main fulcrum-bar E and are provided with guide-pins F, working in suitable slots, and with terminal hammers or plungers G of suitable length.

I claim I11 a mechanical pianoforte-player, the combination, with a supporting-bar, and a series of finger-levers arranged crosswise of the said bar and underneath it and adapted to strike the keys of a piano; of a series of pivots projecting from the top of the said ar, a series of guide-pins also projecting from the top of the said bar, a series of cotave-fingers fulcrumed on the said pivots and provided with slots which slide over the said guide-pins, said octave-fingers being arranged obliquely of the said fingerdevers and bar and having their rear ends operatively con nected with the said finger-levers, and a series of do'wnwardly-projecting plungers carried by the front ends of the said octavefingers.

JOSEPH ROWVLEY.

Witnesses JOHN E. WALsn, ALLAN BENNETT. 

